Dominant Beats

“I didn’t give you permission to talk!” Vinyl bellowed, and a loud clap of wood on skin echoed through the private playroom as the recipient of the spank, a yellow stallion bound to and bent over a chair, let out cries of pain. His handcuffs became taut and his body writhed, while his cock leaked more pre out of his plastic chastity cage. His black blindfold contrasted nicely with his yellow body as Vinyl looked down at him, while his rear became a deeper hue of red. Despite the pain he’d gone through for a good two hours now, the yellow stallion, Slave FS-909, never once rang his bell. Sure, he snorted and sputtered through his nose, feigning resistance like a petulant teenager, but they both loved it like that. The stallion’s ass, getting to be nearly as red from spankings as the collar he wore, gaped lightly from repeated use by Vinyl and other mares like her.

“What makes you think you get to make any demands?” she shouted as she strut around behind him, “I can go to my club and grab any stallion who’s willing to take my cock. And here you are, in the privileged position of being my slave for the night, and you have the balls to think you can just demand that I fuck you?” She sneered as she reached down and grabbed her slave’s mane, pulling his head up and back. “You know, I was gonna give you the pleasure of getting fucked… but since you asked… now I won’t!” she taunted, “But…” she added, leaning in to whisper into his ear, “I want you to beg for it anyway.”

“B-but…” FS-909 stammered, “what’s… what’s the difference?”

“The difference is,” Vinyl said as she let go of his mane and paddled his rear once again, the resultant sound echoing through the room, “You’re begging when I tell you to beg,” she declared.

Moments passed as it processed through the bound male’s mind, but once Vinyl gave his ass the paddle once more, he finally kicked into gear. “Oh stars, please…” he began, “Please, Goddess,” he pleaded, “show me the light! Make me into the mare you know I can be! I wanna be a mare for you!”

Just as he finished speaking, Vinyl’s wristwatch buzzed. The DJ looked at her wrist, lifting up her signature glasses. “FS Duty in 10,” the watch read

“Clockface,” Vinyl said with a smile. Her horn lit up and instantly undid all the bindings on the pegasus stallion, who promptly stood up and stretched all six of his limbs. Vinyl quickly rushed up behind him and scooped him up into a bridal carry, moving him to the bed, and sat down with the stallion in her lap. With another pop of her magic, she procured a bag of ice to gently place on his sore rear with one hand, while stroking his head soothingly with the other.

“Mmm… that was incredible, Vinyl,” the stallion cooed as he looked up at the tall mare. Vinyl smiled warmly at him and just looked at him, petting his mane and shoulder. In some ways, she felt protective of him, even after spanking him hard and often enough to turn his rear apple-red. She felt a surge of pride in herself, and happiness for FS-909, or Flash Sentry, his real name. She loved how good he felt, how she could make him smile like that. It was one thing to please millions of ponies with her music at concerts or in the albums that they listened to at home, but personally witnessing her actions making someone feel that good? Nothing could beat that.

“Glad you had fun,” Vinyl replied, leaning down to kiss him on the head as one would to a pet dog while massaging the base of his wings with her strong hands. “Hope I didn’t hurt you too bad this time,” she added.

“Nah, you were fine,” the stallion assured her with a lazy wave of his hand, “just wish it could have lasted longer, you know?”

“Yeah, I feel ya,” Vinyl sighed, “never quite enough time, but I can just take pride in knowing I can make you squirm,” she teased. Silently, Vinyl stroked the stallion’s back and mane, listening to the sounds of breathing and the shifting of the ice in the bag.

The all-too-short period of afterglow came to a screeching halt as soon as Vinyl’s watch went off again, reminding her that her submissive Crystal Guard stallion only had five minutes to report to duty. With a sigh, Vinyl picked up the bag of ice and helped him up, much to the chagrin of the Torch Guard. “Come on, Flash,” she coaxed, moving him to his feet, “I don’t wanna have to apologize to Cadance for making you late again! I’ll see you next week, ok?”

Warmly, Flash leaned in and up to kiss Vinyl on the cheek. “Count on it, Mistress,” he replied, before gathering his clothes to hurriedly put them on. Within a minute, he had enough clothes on to be presentable and rushed out to the hallway.
Nightfire came strutting along past him. The thestral gave him a spank on the ass as he ran by, and giggled as he yelped. The stallion continued to the portal, quickly adjusted the destination dial, and stepped through. Vinyl smiled and felt a sense of pride that she gave him possibly the best hour of his whole week, and one of the better hours of her own.

Nightfire subsequently stepped through Vinyl’s door, closing and locking it behind her. The thestral mare wore her typical attire of baggy, torn jeans and a tee-shirt from one of Vinyl’s concert tours, something that always made the DJ smile. “Hey Nightfire,” Vinyl greeted as she slid out of her dominatrix attire, preferring to sit and chat with her best friend in the buff.
“Hey Vinyl,” Nightfire replied, sitting back on Vinyl’s couch, right next to her best friend, and put an arm around her back. The DJ smiled and gave the thestral a kiss on the cheek. “You have fun with him?” Nightfire asked.

“Yeah,” she replied, a little noncommittally, “but it’s just getting a little too routine, I guess. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love doing what I do to him, and that smile he gives me when we’re done just makes it so much better,” she explained with a smile on her face. “Well, no, it’s really that… I’m worried it’s going to become routine.”

“Really? Routine, with a Clocktower sub?” Nightfire asked, a little incredulously, “I’ve been with Flash before, and he’s far from routine, lemme tell you,” she assured her. She leaned into Vinyl’s shoulder, giving that tattoo on her right arm a kiss, “What’s gotten you so worked up about this?”

Vinyl sighed as she crossed her leg with Nightfire’s. “My old friend’s birthday is tomorrow,” she replied, “old, old friend from high school. It… brought me down, today.”

“How does a friend’s birthday, of all things, bring you down?” Nightfire asked, shocked, before thinking on it for a moment. “Did it end badly or something?”

“Kinda…” Vinyl said uneasily. “Back where I grew up in Canterlot, I kinda stood out being a tomboy. ‘Specially one as tall as I was, even back then,” she explained, “much as I wanted to be a part of the guys and the gals, I just never fit in with either group. But Shady Branch? He didn’t care. Him and Willowbrook felt the same way about me since they didn’t really fit in with any of the other cliques in school either. So while the rest of the school got freaked out that the class president gave a blowjob to one of the other students, we could just laugh to ourselves since we’d been fooling around as a threesome for months.” She chuckled.

“We could just get our freak on, you know? Don’t think I would’ve even discovered Clocktower if it weren’t for them,” she reminisced, and hugged Nightfire a little tighter to her body. “My parents, teachers, all those ponies were real uptight and ‘prim and proper,’ and always felt that me being the way I am was just a phase or some crap, but those two helped me realize that it’s ok to be weird. But… senior year came, and we were all planning on college, and none of us got into the same school, even though we all tried.

“So on the last day we had before we all moved to different parts of Equestria, we had a threesome where we’d go further than we’d ever gone before. We did things we were too nervous to try earlier, just to get it done, and Shady Branch decided to blow me… and stars above he made me cum so hard, and Willowbrook sucked my tits… drank the first couple drops of milk I ever made,” she explained, in a reminiscing tone, “and then I fucked her,” she chuckled, as her own neon blue cock started to grow out from the memory.

A deep, slightly shuddered breath from the alabaster mare gave away the bittersweet undertone of the memory.
“I never saw either of them again after that night,” she sighed, her cock softening and retreating back into her sheath. “We all went our own separate ways the next day. We wrote to each other, tried to keep in touch, but the letters dried up… Willowbrook, last I heard, got too busy getting into med school, and Shady Branch just didn’t respond after a while. He’d respond to my letters but he never sent one without me sending one first. Felt so… one-sided, you know? Made me wonder if he just forgot about me after he sent those letters,” she managed to say, before she tilted her head down, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. It didn’t stop the tears from flowing down the sides of her nose as she sniveled just loud enough to be heard. Her cheeks turned a light hue of red, and her body curled up slightly.

Nightfire hugged her best friend tightly, letting the moment happen. She didn’t need years of spy training and experience to figure out how Vinyl felt, and what she needed. After a good minute of the otherwise imposing mare quietly sobbing, she finally let out a deep breath, and wiped her eyes.

“Sorry,” Vinyl apologized, “I don’t… this never hit me that hard before…” she admitted.

“Telling someone about it is a lot different than just thinking about it,” Nightfire assured her. “How long have you been keeping this to yourself?”

“Since the last time I heard from either of them. So… about six years,” Vinyl stated as she wiped some more liquid from her eyes. “I just… I was sad, Nightfire,” she confessed, “I thought I had the kinkiest friends in the world… and when I found Clocktower in college, I thought for sure that they’d be members, but I didn’t find either of them! So I just… ah…” she sighed, “when I got my degree, I just decided to move on with my life, make new friends and all that. … But I could never bring myself to delete his birthday notification from my phone.”

Nightfire let the moment pass as she leaned in and gave her friend-with-benefits a gentle kiss on the lips, one that Vinyl returned in kind. After a couple of minutes, they pulled back, as Nightfire brushed the stray strands of hair from her friend’s face. “So this is why you never talked much about growing up,” she commented.

“I just… well, it’s why I never want to be a normal pony,” she said, “or like, not boring, you know? I know Shady Branch wanted to major in some kinda math, and Willowbrook went to medical school. Like, I respect what doctors do, but it just felt like she was only in it because it was a safe bet for a job.”

“What’s so bad about that?” Nightfire asked, “I mean, vanilla is just one facet of the intricately cut diamond that is life, isn’t it?” she wondered, giving her friend a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Sure it’s not everypony’s cup of tea, but… doesn’t mean that vanilla ponies are bad guys. You know, maybe your friends just got caught up with everything… you know they were probably making new friends themselves. Actually, you know…” Nightfire commented as she turned her eyes up in thought, “Shady Branch… I know that guy! He’s a Canterlot accountant; Luna’s Secret Service has him as a C.I. for low-level street crime, since he’s sometimes asked to cook some small-time operation’s books, but nothing more serious than that. I’ve talked to him a couple times, he’s helped me on a few assignments in the past, but it’s been a year or so. Maybe… maybe you should talk to him? And before you tell me ‘no,’…” she said, holding up her hand, “just… hear him out. You know, not everyone who’s vanilla is determined to stamp out kinksters, most of them just want to live and let live!” she assured the DJ, with a hug. “I’m not saying to go have sex with him, just, go talk to him, have lunch or something. Reminisce about the good old days,” she chuckled, “I think it’ll help you out.”

Vinyl, while uncertain about Nightfire’s idea, still trusted the counsel of her best friend of the last few years. With a smile, she nodded.

“All right, then, Nightfire,” she concluded, “I’ll give him a visit tomorrow, wish him a happy birthday… catch up. Yeah, you’re right… what’s the worst that can happen?”

“That’s the spirit,” Nightfire assured her, “Now come on, I know what’ll get you feeling better… some Torch Guard training!”

“Ah for real?” Vinyl rolled her eyes a bit, “We do that every week, and I get spell lessons from Arcane Light every other week… I-“

“Hey c’mon now,” Nightfire coaxed as she stood up and pulled Vinyl to her feet, “That’s not the attitude of someone who wants to protect the good ponies of Equestria, now!”

Vinyl smiled. As usual, Nightfire was right. It reminded her that she made the right choice in letting the thestral take her under her leathery wing.

“Shouldn’t I get dressed?” she asked.

“What are you gonna do if someone starts something while you’re getting worshipped at the bar and none of the others are there to help you? Or if the call goes out while you’re taking a shower? I mean for that last one, don’t you know a decency spell or something?”

“Ah, all right,” Vinyl relented, as she took a few deep breaths, before she took a fighting stance, two fists raised, and bouncing on her hooves. The two friends sparred, practicing the moves she’d learned that earned her the Auxiliary Torch Guard position a year ago. As Nightfire predicted, by the time the two mares finished, tired, sweaty, and bruised, Vinyl felt a sense of euphoria that melted away any doubts and negativity she had before. Nightfire’s suggestion now filled her with confidence. She knew she was ready, now. With a renewed sense of vigor, she committed to herself that she was going to go to Canterlot and see Shady Branch tomorrow, after putting it off for too many years.

***

Vinyl strolled through Canterlot from one of the public use portals, ensuring nopony could tell where she was coming from; a nice little feature for the portal entryway in her club. Thankfully, it was in the middle of a workday, a Wednesday. Vinyl casually looked around at the old-style architecture, wearing her typical shades, while a hoodie kept the winter chill at bay. Born and raised here, the DJ knew these streets inside and out, and though her accountant worked elsewhere, she had passed by this office on occasion. As she looked at the signboard hanging in front of it, she realized why it never drew her attention; Shady Branch’s name didn’t grace it or the building. Just “Spire Accounting, LLC.” “No wonder shady ponies come here to cook their books. Anyone could miss this place…” she mused, before her thoughts were interrupted. Distinct, high pitched, and coming from a low angle, Vinyl instantly recognized the sound of a filly excited to meet her favorite musician. Vinyl turned around, and saw a pale blue unicorn mare across the street, trying to coax her white unicorn filly away. The filly kept pointing to Vinyl Scratch, wordlessly shouting in excitement. Looking around, and finding nopony else nearby, Vinyl jogged across the street.

“Hey, wait up!” she called out. The mother and put a hand to her mouth, embarrassed.

“I’m sorry,” the mare said, profusely apologetically, “I didn’t want to bother you-“

“DJ Pon3!” the little filly shouted excitedly, “Ohmygosh I have all your albums and I’ve always wanted to go to one of your concerts and, and, can I have your autograph?”

The mother’s face blushed. “Sweetie…” she began, but Vinyl raised a hand to quiet her down.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Vinyl said, “you’re not drawin’ in a crowd this time of day, I can spare an autograph for her.” She smiled to the mom as she crouched down to the filly, whose eyes lit up. She could swear she saw stars in the little white filly’s eyes. “What’s your name?” she asked, as she pulled out a pen from her pocket.

“S-Sunrise Field!” the filly replied, giddily and fidgeting with excitement as Vinyl tore out a piece of paper from her personal notepad in her pocket and wrote a message on it.

“All right, then, Sunrise,” she said, “tell ya what, come by my manager’s office sometime, just tell him your name, and he’ll know to give you one of my mixtapes,” she explained with a smile, and handed the filly the note, which read

“To Sunrise Field,
You do you! Was great to meet you! Remember, do what you like, and do it honestly.
-DJ Pon-3”

The filly reached in and gave Vinyl a hug. Vinyl leaned down and let her get a sidelong hug in return.
The mother shook her hand, relieved. “Thank you, this’ll make her whole year!” she said with a kind smile.

“Hey, don’t sweat it, always glad to make a fan’s day,” she replied. “My next concert’s in a few months, so maybe I’ll see you both there?” she suggested, waving at Sunrise Field and her mother, “Anyway, I gotta go,” she said as her watch buzzed, hitting noon.

“Bye DJ Pon-3!” the filly called out and waved back, clutching the autograph in her hand like it was a delicate paper artifact, as Vinyl jogged back across the street and into the accounting office. As she walked in, she discovered only a small waiting room with a receptionist on the first floor. With not a single other pony in the room, the bespectacled mare at the front desk looked up at Vinyl. Initially disinterested, her eyes looked back up again, but whether surprised at Vinyl’s professional-basketball-player height or the fact that an actual famous musician stepped through the door, it didn’t matter.

“He-hello miss, can I help you?” she asked, hastily and shakily standing up.

“Hey, uh… here to see Shady Branch,” Vinyl stated, as she lifted the glasses off her eyes and rested them atop her horn.

“It’s his lunch break right now,” the mare countered, tilting her head a little, thinking. “You can come back-“

“No no,” the DJ said, holding up her hand, “it’s… it’s a social call,” Vinyl corrected, in an uncharacteristically nervous tone, “he’s an old friend from high school… just let him know that Vinyl Scratch is here.”

“Um, take a seat,” the older unicorn suggested, motioning behind Vinyl.

She turned around towards an upscale, if bland, set of furniture, including a table and a long plush couch that showed signs of wear. The walls depicted paintings of wealthy stallions from what looked to be a hundred years ago.
Damn this place is old, Vinyl thought to herself, before turning around, sitting down and sitting back. She could hear the receptionist talking over the phone from across the room.

“Yes, there’s a… Vinyl Scratch, here to see you,” she said, before a pause. “Wait, what? Um… tall, white, unicorn with a blue mane and magenta eyes? She says you were friends in- … All right, yes… yes of course.” She concluded before hanging up the phone. She looked up at Vinyl from her desk, meeting the DJ’s wandering eyes almost immediately.

“Mr. Shady Branch will see you now,” she said, eyebrows raised in confusion, “Upstairs, last door on the left.”

Vinyl stood up, nodded at the older mare, and ascended the wooden staircase. Every other step creaked underneath her weight, and an old, dirty window emanated light from the top of the staircase. It faced the next building over, but enough light got through to illuminate the area adequately. With a blank wall on her left at the top, she turned to the right and saw a hallway of four office doors, each with their occupant’s name engraved on a brass plate by the doorknob. True to the receptionist’s word, Shady Branch’s door was the last office on the left. Without knocking, Vinyl turned the doorknob and opened the door.

The office reminded her of a set she’d seen in one or more movies she couldn’t quite name… standard-looking desk, green-hued lamp shining down on a mess of paperwork, a clear green visor on the pony’s head. Still, clear as day, Shady Branch sat there, looking up at her in the middle of eating a sandwich. Swallowing what was in his mouth, he put it down and stood up.

“Well, as I live and breathe…” he began as he walked out around the desk and held out a hand, “Vinyl Scratch! It’s been way too long!”

Vinyl reached out to shake his hand, but quickly pulled him in for a hug, putting her long arm around his back and patting him hard… clearly something the accountant didn’t expect, judging by the pause between the hug from Vinyl, and him wrapping his arms around her back in return.

“Ah come on, we’re better friends than just a handshake,” she said, a whole feeling of nostalgia overflowing her mind. It was almost as if she was back in high school again, and hugging him tightly felt like nothing had changed. All too quickly, Shady Branch pulled back from the hug and bade her to sit down on one of the two chairs before the desk, and he sat down in the other.

“Wow,” Shady said as he looked up at her, smiling, “You know, when I heard you became famous, I never thought you’d have time to come visit little old me.”

Vinyl, panged with a little pain, decided not to bring up how he stopped even trying to contact her after a time… hoping to just let it be water under the bridge. “Well,” she said, “you know how it is, being busy with stuff… it happens. A friend of mine told me you worked here, so I just thought I’d stop by while I was in town!” she explained, trying to keep her mood upbeat.

“That’s right, you live in Ponyville,” he commented, his tone sounding slightly distant, but his eyes looking her over like he’d just seen her for the first time, “Well hey, you caught me a little late for lunch but, would you like to go out to dinner sometime?” he suggested, “I don’t have too long before my next appointment comes in, but you know I’d love to talk and… reminisce about growing up,” he commented with a grin, one that Viny initially interpreted as… like that of a stallion trying his luck with a sweet piece of ass.

“Sure,” Vinyl agreed, smiling gently, trying and mostly succeeding at brushing away her uneasiness, assuring herself that he couldn’t be that kind of stallion after all that time they’d spent together. “I get you’re a busy guy… but yeah, it’ll be nice to catch up.”

“Great!” he replied with a smile, letting his hands fall to his knees as he sat back, more relaxed, “there’s a great little place called 'J.Q Whicktrot’s' near the castle… always wanted an excuse to go there, but now I have one! Just remember to wear formal attire. And don’t worry, I know the hostess there, she’ll be glad to make sure we’re sitting out of the way somewhere and don’t draw a crowd,” he said with a wink, “we’ll have each other all to ourselves, it’ll be great!”

“Yeah… definitely,” Vinyl commented, with waning enthusiasm. She was hoping for something more along the lines of a nightclub like Neon Lights’ club RGBeats, as she disliked formal settings. Not to mention Neon always had a private room set aside for her in his club if she didn’t want to draw in any attention and she just needed to call ahead. “How about… 7 tonight?”

Come on, Vinyl, she thought to herself as Shady Branch launched into what felt like a diatribe of pleasantries that she largely tuned out, You haven’t seen him in like seven years! Give the guy a chance!
All the while she tried to pretend to be interested and not break eye contact as whatever Shady Branch was talking about finished.

“…don’t you think?” was all she heard at the end.

“Yeah, yeah,” Vinyl said with a smile, trying to pretend that she understood it, and praying to Celestia that he didn’t try to call her on it.

Thankfully, a knock on the door saved the day for her. “Ah, I’ll see you tonight,” Vinyl assured him, making things quick, “At 7!” she reminded him, with about the fakest thumbs-up gesture she’d ever given anyone. Judging by his facial expression, he didn’t notice, and he returned the gesture with a genuine smile before she brushed past a very confused looking unicorn in a coat and tie.

Vinyl booked a hotel room as soon as she could after she left, where she spent the next seven hours sitting on the bed and gathering her thoughts while eating a nice room service meal for lunch. Alone with her worries, and a big double-stacked burger, she sat back on the bed and stared at the blank TV screen as she contemplated her options. Either ditch him, and burn that bridge entirely, or go through with it, and just try to make it work. For about an hour, ditching him sounded like a great idea; just let him go, just forget all of this, and spare yourself the awkwardness, she thought. At least, until she realized that doing so would make any memories she had of him much more painful, that she would never be able to forget that she gave him an unceremonious cold shoulder when he may have just honestly wanted to reconnect. She could not bring herself to live with such guilt.

So she remained with the alternative, to try to give him the benefit of the doubt throughout this dinner date for as long as possible, and maybe just catch up on some good times, then end it cleanly if things went too poorly. As she sat down in the modernist-looking hotel room and lay back on the plush bed, she took a nap, setting an alarm for 6 so she could get ready. “I hope I don’t regret this,” she muttered as she closed her eyes.